Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Courthouse News – by Daniel Jackson

OXFORD, Miss. (CN) – Recommending they read William Faulkner to learn the “boundaries of human decency,” a federal judge on Friday admonished former Mississippi police officers accused of forcing a mentally disabled man to eat a mouthful of cinnamon days after making him box a cop.

In 2012, officers in Tutwiler, Mississippi, allegedly forced Denareus Cortez Martin, then 19, into a boxing match, and a few days later made him undergo the “cinnamon challenge,” filming and posting footage of both incidents on social media.   Continue reading “Judge Blasts Mississippi Cops for Harassing Disabled Man”

ProPublica – by Ken Armstrong, ProPublica, and Christian Sheckler, South Bend Tribune

When Ed Windbigler became Elkhart’s police chief in January 2016, one of his first tasks was selecting his top command staff.

For assistant chief, his second in command, Windbigler named Todd Thayer. Less than three years before, Thayer had been demoted two ranks for making flippant comments about a fatal shooting. Witnesses reported he said a fellow officer could now check shooting a person off his “bucket list.”   Continue reading “Nearly All the Officers in Charge of an Indiana Police Department Have Been Disciplined — Including the Chief Who Keeps Promoting Them”

Montreal Gazette

OTTAWA — The case of a woman who received two tickets and was arrested because she didn’t hold an escalator handrail in a Laval métro station is going to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The case stems from an incident on May 13, 2009, when the appellant, Bela Kosoian, was stopped by a Laval police officer at the Montmorency station because she wasn’t respecting a pictogram instructing riders to hold the railing of the escalator.  Continue reading “Supreme Court of Canada to hear Laval métro escalator case”

Activist Post – by Catherine Frompovich

Thanks to Andrew Michrowski, PhD, President of the Planetary Association for Clean Energy in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for sharing the following information with me, which I truly appreciate.

The “Smart Car” is destined to become an integral part of the Internet of Things (IoT), which will operate on 5G bandwidths.  It’s known as “Car-to-Car Communication.”  Continue reading “How High-tech Is Your “Smart Car”?”

The Baltimore Sun – by Collin Campbell

The Hammond High Bears got a visit from their mascot Wednesday.

A black bear sighting near the school in Columbia prompted officials to place the school on a modified lockdown — continuing classes as normal but keeping students, faculty and staff inside the building — just before noon, Howard County Public School System spokesman Brian Bassett said.   Continue reading “Black bear sighting prompts modified lockdown at Columbia high school (whose mascot just happens to be a bear)”

MassPrivateI

A recent article in Smart Cities Dive revealed that the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (DOT) will be partnering with Remix, Lime and Spin to create a mobility data standard for ride shares.

A ‘mobility data standard’ is just a fancy way of saying a real-time scooter and bicycle tracking standard.   Continue reading “National bike share data program allows DOT’s to identify scooter and bike share users in real-time”

Gizmodo – by Rhett Jones

Customers of the Infowars store are getting scammed every day but this time it’s different. A security researcher discovered a form of malware embedded in the conspiracy site’s checkout process that records credit card details and transmits them to a remote server.

ZDNet interviewed Dutch security researcher Willem de Groot about his discovery of a strain of malware known as Magecart on the Infowars store. De Groot uses a custom-built malware scanner to monitor various websites for infections and he told ZDNet that he’s kept tabs on Infowars for three and a half years with no signs of foul play. Continue reading “Infowars Infected With Credit Card-Stealing Malware, Alex Jones Claims It’s a Conspiracy”

Washington Post

The expo had finally begun, and now hundreds of school administrators streamed into a sprawling, chandeliered ballroom where entrepreneurs awaited, each eager to explain why their product, above all others, was the one worth buying.

Waiters in white button-downs poured glasses of chardonnay and served meatballs wrapped with bacon. In one corner, guests posed with colorful boas and silly hats at a photo booth as a band played Jimmy Buffett covers to the rhythm of a steel drum. For a moment, the festive summer scene, in a hotel 10 miles from Walt Disney World, masked what had brought them all there.   Continue reading “School shootings have fueled a $2.7 billion school safety industry”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

At the most recent International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) conference in Atlanta, Walmart announced new plans to repurpose twelve of its locations into Town Centers — an outdoor gathering area with seating, community activities, entertainment, dining facilities, jogging paths, fountains, green spaces, playgrounds, and even space for live music.

The idea behind Walmart’s seismic shift is that it wants to recreate the downtown of small communities that it was instrumental in destroying.   Continue reading “Here Is How Walmart Plans To Seize Further Control Of Your Community”

Natural News – by Vicki Batts

As smart meters make their way across the United States, a growing number of people are vocalizing concerns about the devices and consumer privacy rights. The Fourth Amendment was designed to protect Americans from government surveillance and other forms of government overreach. Now, a federal court in Illinois has ruled that right is negotiable — provided it is in the government’s best interest.

Even after officials ruled that smart meters are a form of government search and seizure, federal courts say that the information gathered by smart meters (and consequently, city-run utilities companies) is “reasonable,” and therefore not in violation of the Fourth Amendment.   Continue reading “Court rules that your 4th amendment right to privacy, especially when it comes to smart meters, is a “privilege””

Tenth Amendment Center – by Mike Maharrey

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ore. (Nov. 6, 2018) –  Voters in eight Oregon counties have passed ballot measures that set the stage to create what supporters call “gun rights sanctuary” counties.

Second Amendment Preservation Ordinances on the ballot passed in 8 of 10 counties today. They create a mechanism to “guarantee that no county funds will be used to enforce gun laws that are believed to violate the Second Amendment, including registration rules and limitations on semi-automatic weapons and ammunition,” according to a report in the News-Review of Douglas County.   Continue reading “Gun Rights Sanctuary Counties: Voters in Oregon Set Foundation for Eight”

Reason – by Eugene Volokh

A new New Jersey statute (enacted by SB2465) bans

distribut[ing] by any means, including the Internet, to a person in New Jersey who is not registered or licensed as a [gun] manufacturer …, digital instructions in the form of computer-aided design files or other code or instructions stored and displayed in electronic format as a digital model that may be used to program a three-dimensional printer to manufacture or produce a firearm, firearm receiver, magazine, or firearm component.

Continue reading “Lawsuit Challenging New Jersey Ban on Distributing “Digital Instructions” for 3D Printing of Guns”

Mother Jones – by Kara Voght

Gun control advocates are planning an aggressive legislative strategy when Congress reconvenes in January. Working closely with key lawmakers, they hope to use the new Democratic House majority to force votes on a raft of reforms that have been blocked repeatedly by Republicans—including expanded background checks, funding for research on gun violence, and a so-called “red flag” law designed to keep firearms out of the hands of people who pose a danger to themselves or others.   Continue reading “Gun Control Advocates Have a Majority in Congress. Here’s How They Plan to Use It.”

Albany Democrat-Herald – by Alex Paul

Continue reading “LCSO to get armored vehicle, high-tech drone”

MassPrivateI

The birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr., appears to be reverting back to the 1950’s.

A recent appeals court ruling reveals that Montgomery, Alabama judges and police are allowed to give indigent people two choices to pay for traffic tickets. One, they can wash police cars and clean courtrooms or two, they can go directly to jail.   Continue reading “Court: Can’t pay your ticket? Wash police cars and clean courtrooms or go to jail”